NBR's International Reserves in April 2000
06.05.2000
The building of forex reserves of the NBR continued into April, amounting to USD 1,695 million at the end of the month.
Forex reserves went up by USD 62.5 million as a result of the following operations:
- net purchases by the central bank from the forex market in amount of USD 244.9 million;
- return of short-term deposits (plus related interest) taken by the NBR, totalling USD 103 million;
- principal and interest payments falling due, worth USD 43.7 million, related to foreign public debt, direct and bearing the sovereign guarantee of the Ministry of Finance;
- net redemption of foreign exchange-denominated government securities issued by the Ministry of Finance on the domestic market, worth USD 37.9 million;
- other net inflows in amount of USD 2.2 million (change in foreign exchange requirements met by commercial banks, interest on bank investments, surrender of foreign exchange to official reserves, fees and bank commissions a.s.o.).
The gold stock rose to 104.1 tons, but owing to developments in the price of gold on foreign markets, its value increased only to USD 922.9 million, leaving the NBR's foreign reserves (gold included) at over USD 2.6 billion.
By the end of 2000, the payments falling due related to external and domestic public debt (in foreign exchange), direct and bearing the sovereign guarantee of the Ministry of Finance, will run at USD 794 million, of which redemption of foreign exchange-denominated government securities issued on the domestic market will amount to USD 112 million.
The National Bank of Romania is further striving to build reserve assets and ensure timely repayment of the foreign public debt service.